Читать книгу Clinical Pancreatology for Practising Gastroenterologists and Surgeons - Группа авторов - Страница 161

Acute pancreatitis (AP) is an inflammatory disease of the pancreas that can cause local injury sometimes accompanied by a severe systemic inflammatory response which can lead to multiple organ dysfunction. AP is usually caused by either excessive alcohol intake or cholelithiasis (80%), with a minority of cases accounted for by various other conditions such as trauma, drugs, predisposing genetic conditions, autoimmune disease, or pancreatic tumours [1]. Over the past decades, as our understanding of the pathophysiology of AP has been refined, so too has our therapeutic armamentarium. However, despite this progress, AP still has an associated mortality estimated at around 5% [2], with severe cases requiring prolonged hospitalization due to local and systemic complications. The most notable paradigm shift in the treatment of AP has been our understanding that conservative medical therapy should represent the mainstay of treatment in most cases and that invasive therapies, especially surgery, should be avoided whenever possible [3].